Evolution, Ecology, and Organismal Biology

blogs

“How Molecular Ecologists Work” is an interview series that asks successful scientists to share their experiences in the field and their tips for getting science done effectively. This is my second year running this interview series for The Molecular Ecologist blog, and I’ve recently posted the release schedule. There will one interview per week from now until the end of January, so peek in when you can to read what these scientists from all over the world do from day-to-day.

A big part of training to be a scientist is training to be productive. Grad students and faculty do a lot of different things in a set amount of time, and that amount of time always stubbornly stays the same or reduces. Improving efficiency not only allows you to have more time for non-work things, but also allows you to devote valuable time to tasks that need creativity instead of efficiency. My advisor often tells us that we are too busy and need more time to sit around and think. As much as technology can be a rabbit-hole of wasted time, I […]

Part of being a graduate student is working hard. Whispers of disappearing faculty positions and decreases in funding percentages are heard at most social gatherings. You have to be in the lab 80 hours per week to stay at the front. Right? In this really good blog post, Dr. Meghan Duffy (follow her on twitter here!) presents her argument for why the myth of the 80 hours/week = success equation is pretty silly. When I read Dr. Duffy’s post a few weeks ago, I had already been intensely thinking about the way I work for about a month. After reaching […]

“Spectrum Colors Arranged by Chance III” (1952) by Ellsworth Kelly I stumbled upon this really neat post on Jim Davenport‘s blog, If We Assume: Data or Art?Us scientists now have so many tools at our disposal to visualize data in new and interesting ways. While box and whisker plots may never go out of style, check out some of the sites below to find fascinating graphs, plots, charts, and more. From Gong et al. (2011) PNAS Wired magazine: Data as Art: 10 Striking Science MapsThe sub-reddit “Data is Beautiful” This all-time classic talk from Hans Rosling, “Stats that reshape your worldview”Information […]